I've been a "unicyclist" for the last 6 months, but now i'm a real unicyclist again.

I’m currently in the middle of my exams at uni. I had finished one exam and had 9 days until the next one so thought I’d take the day off from studying to spend with my girlfriend. We had it all planned, movies, lunch, shopping... then she got called into work last minute and had to reschedule. But this wasn’t stopping me taking the day off. I haven’t ridden for about 6 months and lately I’ve been looking at my muni and been itching to go out for a spin. So I thought today’s the day! I was planning on going in the morning but it has been a bit cold lately so I slept in till lunch, had some BBQ and icecream and left.

I was so eager to go that it wasn’t till I was all padded up and riding down the road that I realised I had forgotten my riding shorts. Don’t worry I wasn’t starkas, I just had boardies and boxers on. After I few minutes of thinking how surprisingly comfortable everything down there was, I decided to carry on.

Its about a 3.5km ride to the trail. The view from the top of the only road climb with Brisbane city in the background.

Riding to the trail...

Nearly there...

This is my stop.

I didn’t really know where I was going to go but I thought I’d start by riding/hiking up to channel 9.

Hitting the dirt for the first time in 6 months.

It felt good...

Being away from my desk and outside muniing I was free...

I could even taste the freedom!

The first of a few offroad climbs. Far too steep/loose for me to ride, so...

Decided I’d have an explore of the trails on the other side of channel 9. I had seen a couple of Fire and Rescue trucks and Ambulances parked here one day when I was out for a run and had assumed a biker had got into a bit of trouble on the trails. After the first 50m I knew that must have been it. It was the longest steepest fire trail type track I’d ever seen.

I thought “what the hell I’ll give it a go” and within 2m I was off and sliding 6m on my feet and backside. I looked up and saw two hikers coming my way so I knew if I got into trouble someone would be around to call the fire and rescue back. I slowly continued on, riding about 10m then purposely running myself into a tree to stop. It was steep but it was fun. I was Mr Jelly Legs by the bottom!

I found heaps of nice tracks at the bottom of the infernal hill.

After plodding along some nice single track I found a peaceful little stream.

It was slowing running.

My new desktop background!

After 2hrs it was time to head home, that meant it was time to climb that jolly large hill... not fun.

I heard a helicopter and was hoping it was coming to take me home so I didn’t have to climb the hill... but turns out it was only a channel 9 chopper, dang!

I found a pretty flower on the way home.

Once I got home and had my post ride shower (surprisingly painless despite the lack of riding shorts) my girlfriend came over to take me out to see a show (the flower was also a hit ). So all in all I got to sleep in, have ice cream, go for a muni AND go out with my girl. Does it get any better? (minus remembering bike shorts)

Thanks guys. I had almost as much fun taking pictures as I did riding. But I tell you what, my quads are still aching from climbing those hills and I've had some pretty bad DOMS for the last few days. Stairs are just starting to no longer scare me.

I just talked to my brother and turns out we're doing a team half ironman triathlon in August. I'm helping him out by doing the running leg. I haven't run in a few months but this will motivate me to get out and run, perhaps with a bit of uni cross-training